An ordinary classroom in an African school.

Two Years On: The Reversal of Tanzania’s Education Policies for Adolescent Mothers

By Joelle Boxer

In November 2021, Tanzania’s Ministry of Education reversed a policy preventing adolescent mothers from attending public schools. Two years on, research shows the movement for #ArudiShuleni (“Back to School”) requires continued support.

Prior to the policy change, an estimated 6,55015,000 Tanzanian girls and adolescents were forced out of school each year due to pregnancy, while thousands more were subject to coercive pregnancy testing. The reversal has fundamental implications at the intersection of rights to sexual and reproductive health care and education.

This article will review the expulsion policy, efforts leading to its reversal, and the government’s recent re-entry guidelines, with a focus on the driving role of civil society.

Read More

Medical personnel stand at a doctor's meeting, give advice, nurses and assistants, hospital personnel, professionalism.

Equity in Health Care Education: Ethical Distribution of CMS Funding

By Stephen Wood

The number of physicians in the U.S. is shrinking, especially among those who choose primary care. Advanced practice providers, such as Advanced Practice Nurses (APRNs) and Physician Assistants (PAs), are helping to fill that void.

In order to maintain a health care system that can serve our aging population, and one that is aligned with the health care needs and goals of our nation, there is a need for legislative support to fund APRN and PA clinical education in a way commensurate with residency training programs.

Read More

Empty Classroom In Elementary School With Whiteboard And Desks.

Educating for Disability and Climate Change

By David Liebmann

Children starting kindergarten in 2023 will be 32 years old in 2050, the year the Paris Climate Accord signatories agreed to reach net zero carbon emissions. Those 32-year-olds will have grown up with signs of climate change appearing everywhere around them. They must learn enough in school about the changing global environment to lead themselves and the next generation into a livable future. This education should also incorporate teaching about disability and the disparate impacts of climate change on people with disabilities.

Read More

Group of students wearing protective medical masks and talking, standing in lecture hall at the university.

Public Health Law’s Future Begins in the Classroom

By Taleed El-Sabawi

The use of emergency public health powers by state and local governments during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic led to intense public criticism followed by legislative attempts (include some successes) to strip state executives of this authority. This has led some to ask: is this the end of public health law? What does the future hold?

For public health law to survive, it needs a good defense. It needs passionate advocates. It needs a growing constituency that understands its utility and its importance in protecting the health of the population. But, let’s face it. I would wager a guess that the vast majority of law students, law professors, and law school administrators do not even know what public health law is.

Read More

Gavel and stethoscope.

How to Assess the Impact of Medical Ethics Education

By Leah Pierson

There has been too little evaluation of ethics courses in medical education in part because there is not consensus on what these courses should be trying to achieve. Recently, I argued that medical school ethics courses should help trainees to make more ethical decisions. I also reviewed evidence suggesting that we do not know whether these courses improve decision making in clinical practice. Here, I consider ways to assess the impact of ethics education on real-world decision making and the implications these assessments might have for ethics education.

Read More

Serving trays with delicious food on table. Concept of school lunch.

New Data Reveal Sparse Protections for Students Who Cannot Pay for Meals at School

By Temple University Center for Public Health Law Research

As a federal program to serve meals to all U.S. public school students during the COVID-19 pandemic ends on June 30, the consequences of unpaid school meal debt will resurface for the millions of students nationwide facing food insecurity.

New data released on LawAtlas.org capture details of state unpaid school meal policies and reveals sparse and variable protections for students who cannot pay for meals at school.

Read More

Medical student textbooks with pencil and multicolor bookmarks and stethoscope isolated on white.

We Need to Evaluate Ethics Curricula

By Leah Pierson

Health professions students are often required to complete training in ethics. But these curricula vary immensely in terms of their stated objectives, time devoted to them, when during training students complete them, who teaches them, content covered, how students are assessed, and instruction model used. Evaluating these curricula on a common set of standards could help make them more effective.

Read More